We also consulted an advisory board panel of venture capitalists to help sift through a clutter of me-too start-ups.

Today we’re introducing this distinguished list of companies — dubbed the FASTech 50 — whose chief executives will be invited to speak at the upcoming VentureWire FASTech conference in November. (There will also be a contest for one more spot — keep reading below.)

You can find the FASTech 50 list on the FASTech website by clicking here. This diverse group — spread among a number of sectors such as software, data storage, mobile and health-care IT — includes relatively under-the-radar start-ups such as Oblong Industries, whose gesture-based computing technology has its roots in the movie “Minority Report,” as well as those blessed with blogosphere buzz, such as social-magazine app maker Flipboard and business-networking software company Yammer. …

If your small business doesn’t yet have a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile or Twitter feed, a recent study may persuade you to finally join the social-media bandwagon.

Sixty-five percent of all U.S. adults now use social-networking sites, up from 61% a year ago and just 5% in 2005, reports Pew Research Center. The findings are based on telephone interviews conducted in April and May by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Most of the growth over the past year came from Americans over the age of 30, with seniors accounting for the bulk of it. One-third of adults ages 65 and older say they now use social-networking sites, compared with 26% who said a year ago. Still, young folks between 18 and 29 years old remain the overall biggest group tapping social networks today, accounting for 83% of the total. …

The following is a repost from In Charge’s sister blog, Venture Capital Dispatch: An iPhone that you can press against your chest to monitor your heart rate? That’s the vision of a start-up company called AliveCor Inc., which has raised a $3 million Series A round to further develop a $100 device that could give users the kind of readout they would normally get from an expensive piece of machinery in a hospital. AliveCor’s piece of hardware fits over the phone like a case and features electrodes that are placed against the user’s chest. The electrodes feed information to the phone app, which displays the heart rate on the screen. …

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, so the Joni Mitchell song goes.

Now two Idaho entrepreneurs want to turn that parking lot into a solar-energy source with the help of a $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant.

Solar Roadways, based in Sagle, will use the funds to create a prototype solar parking lot, with road-level panels encased in thick glass that drivers ride over, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The panels are linked by underground wires and connected to the power grid…

George C. Ballas Sr., a Houston dance instructor who invented the weed whacker while sitting in a car wash, died of natural causes on Saturday. He was 85.

Ballas launched the Weed Eater company in the early 1970s after he was inspired by car-wash bristles to use spinning wires to cut hard-to-reach corners of a lawn. His early model was little more than a tin can laced with fishing line. He later sold the invention to Emerson Electric for an undisclosed amount.

I recently sat down in Austin, Texas, with Tim O’Shaughnessy, co-founder of Living Social, one of the leaders in the daily-deals space, to talk about that it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

In a few short years, O’Shaughnessy has grown the Washington, D.C., start-up to 30 million members, forming a strategic partnership with Amazon.com Inc. and recently raising $400 million to help fuel expansion. LivingSocial competes with Groupon Inc. in terms of customers, capital and cachet. (While Groupon recently filed to go public, O’Shaughnessey was mum on whether his company would anytime soon.)

About In Charge

America’s entrepeneurs are executives who build companies from the ground up. In Charge provides news, analysis and in-the-trenches commentary about small-business management. Produced by Sarah E. Needleman, Emily Maltby and Angus Loten, with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Have a comment or tip? Write to incharge@wsj.com.